Field of Schemes

Sonics co-owner: We wanted OKC all along - wait, are you writing this down?
August 14, 2007

"Throw another move threat on the fire: Yesterday, Seattle Sonics minority owner (and billionaire natural gas mogul) Aubrey McClendon told the Oklahoma City Journal Record that he was 'under a self-imposed gag order' regarding operations of the team - then yammered at length about it, including the statement: 'We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here. We know it's a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it's great for the community and if we could break even we'd be thrilled.'" . . . | more

by Dave Zirin

"You can't throw money at the problem." As a former public school teacher in Washington, I heard this cliche from countless bureaucrats. It was code for "Stop whining about ancient textbooks and prehistoric classroom materials, because there is no money." Imagine my shock when the city announced it would be spending more than $500 million on a new baseball stadium. Clearly when it comes to the needs of billionaire sports owners, there always seems to be money available to be thrown.

In the Pennsylvania race for governor, pro football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann was easily defeated by incumbent Ed Rendell in the November 7 mid-terms. Swann's celebrity status and former position as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (2002-2005) couldn't carry him to victory as they did Arnold Schwarzenegger in California (Schwarzenegger was Chairman of the President's Fitness Council from 1990-92).

On this occassion, League of Fans remembers opposing Swann's peddling of junk food to kids while Chairman of the President's Fitness Council. At a vending machine trade group press conference on January 13, 2005, Chairman Swann was paid to appear next to a vending machine filled with junk food alongside elementary school kids.

Victory! Voters in both Seattle, WA and Sacramento, CA went against sports team owner demands for corporate welfare in ballot measures on Tuesday, November 7. Field of Schemes has the breakdown:

Testimony of Ralph Nader
Before the Committees on Finance and Revenue, and Economic Development
District of Columbia City Council
November 28, 2005

Members of the Joint Committees, thank you for giving me the opportunity to present testimony. I would ask that my testimony be made part of the official record of this hearing.

Last year in the District, a mobilized citizenry emerged to challenge a proposal by Mayor Williams and the DC Council that would have subordinated the life necessities of District residents to a private, for-profit, monopoly entertainment corporation. District residents were heavily opposed, by an over two-to-one margin, to a publicly-subsidized stadium for Major League Baseball. Voters ended the representation on the Council of all three incumbent members up for re-election who supported spending tax dollars on a stadium, and replaced them with three who campaigned against it.

Council of the District of Columbia

Dear Councilmembers:

Where is the DC Council oversight on this runaway stadium gravy train? The recent maneuver to introduce as "technical" three amendments to last year’s rush-job stadium bill, and to block all other amendments, is the latest example of a Council which has fallen to its knees. As reported by the Washington Post on October 18, 2005 regarding the utilities tax amendment, "Wall Street wants a guarantee in the legislation that the utilities tax will bring in at least $12 million a year, enough to cover the ballpark debt service." This amendment is a substantive change and anything but technical.